The present invention relates to implements for assisting in the cleaning and storage of sewer hoses, particularly for use in connection with recreational vehicles.
Recreational vehicles, such as campers, trailers and the like, very often have built in toilet facilities. Included in the toilet facility is a holding tank which holds the waste matter until it can be drained into a sewer or septic system, collectively referred to herein as a sewer. The holding tank is discharged into the sewer through a compressible or collapsible hose which can be fitted to the holding tank and to an inlet for the sewer. In addition to serving in this capacity when the holding tank is to be drained, there are some recreational vehicle parks that have sewer facilities at individual campsites so that the sewer hose can connect the recreational vehicle to the sewer for an extended duration, so that the waste matter need not be held in the holding tank, but passes directly to the hose and into the sewer system.
However, when it is time to leave such a camp or the contents of the holding tank have been emptied into a sewer, some residual waste matter will remain in the hose, so it is desirable that the hose be cleaned out. The hose is generally washed with a water supply such as a garden hose to flush the waste matter out of the hose and into the sewer. Then, the hose is typically compressed and stored in the recreational vehicle, such as in a storage compartment in a recreational vehicle bumper. However, compressing the hose to make it fit in the storage compartment, particularly after it has just been washed, can be a messy process, since the still-wet hose will drip on the person trying to compress it or perhaps spring out of compression while it is to be packed into the storage compartment.
The cleaning of the sewer hose and its compression and packing is commonly considered one of the most distasteful chores in RV camping, and there is a need to improve the processes involved to make them less distasteful and to provide an implement to assist in cleaning and storing the hose.